Acer Aspire V7 pictures and hands-on

The introduction of the Aspire V7 updates the V-series Ultrabook line. Pocket-lint was on hand at the official unveiling at Acer's product launch in New York city, where we took some time out with the latest laptop.

Despite its 15.6-inch screen the V7 has trimmed back on size and weight compared to the earlier V5 model - the same model which, when we reviewed it in March, we thought could do with cutting down on its 2.3kg weight. And that's exactly what the V7 has done: size has dipped nine per cent by comparison which, while not a huge amount, can be felt in the hand. Still, the V7's not exactly a teeny-tiny machine by any means.

The bronze-finish model we played with included a 1080p touch-sensitive LCD screen to command the Windows 8 operating system, while the well-spaced keypad - which included a decent backlight - felt natural and comfortable to type on. The keys had a good "bounce" to them which made typing a breeze - we could see this functioning well as a desktop-replacement laptop.

There's a £499 start price and the cost will increase if you want a speedier Intel processor at the Ultrabook's core. Whether i3 or i5, we found both models to function smoothly, although we weren't able to carry out more advanced tasks during our time playing with the machine.

It's not drastically different from the earlier V-series models, but the V7 is a step in the right direction where size and weight are concerned. As well as the touchscreen model we played with there are also non-touch and 14-inch models available in the series.